Like a Phoenix from the Ashes
by Liryc
Summary: Cain's power waxes with each passing day, and with the final fate of the world and its people resting on the shoulders of the Nightroad brothers, does Abel have the strength to succeed? Or will the world fall to the Contra Mundi?
1. Lord and Servant

"It's so... Serene... Isn't it?" A tiny smile crept across my lips. A gust of evening wind whipped my snow white robe and shining golden hair roughly, but it fell back into place just as neatly as before, seemingly untouched. My eyes closed, and I gave a short, soft chuckle, leaning on the railing of the Eiffel Tower, overlooking the brightly lit city of Paris. In truth, the lights were not man-made. No, not electrical lights, but brightly burning yellow and orange flames. The city had been reduced to a smoldering pile of ash and billowing black smoke in a matter of days, all because of a little friction between the Empire and the Vatican. The people of the world had suffered the consequence of a little diplomatic misunderstanding, and oh, how glorious it was!

"Indeed, My Lord," replied a silky voice, belonging to the man behind me, who was dressed in a perfectly tailored black suit. His hair rippled slightly in the breeze as well, hanging past his waist and comprised of gleaming, midnight strands that caught the light of the flames below. He stepped up beside me with two elegant strides, watching in interest as I sighed in a very contented manner.

"It's beautiful... I could never have asked for a more perfect evening," I breathed deeply through my nose, the smell of burnt flesh, stone, and wood intoxicating me to no end. It was like ingesting copious amounts of raw human death.

"Now that you have accomplished your goal... What do you plan on doing next?" but I was deaf to his words. I stared off into the flaming scene below me, lost deep in my memories...


	2. Rough Beginnings

Being born was not something people usually remembered; the brain of a baby is far too underdeveloped to have such a capability, but for them, their life had been the same ever since they had come into being. Cain was the only one of the group that could remember that moment, when he had first entered into the world, when the doctors had smiled down upon him, and one had turned to the others and said: "Experiment Krusnik 01 was successful. This is the newest model of Krusnik, gentlemen. Our future depends upon his survival, and I want you all to treat him as if he were your very own son." He'd been given to Lilith, their first test Krusnik, soon after that, as she was supposed to pose as his mother, while they ran tests as he aged.

Abel was born several months later, on the opposite end of Europe, from nearly identical DNA, and had also been brought to Lilith to be cared for. It was not until he was a toddler that Abel could remember what his life had been like, but truthfully, he wished that he could forget this horrid experience.

"Abel, you'll be all right. Go with him. I promise you'll come back to me. Go on." Lilith's voice soothed him, but four-year-old Abel was still hesitant to leave her side. He gripped her dress, looking up at her through crystal clear aquamarine eyes,

"Where's Cain? Where is he?"

"With them. Go." The man in his white lab coat reached out for him, extending an apparently friendly hand for him to take. He took it, glancing back at Lilith to be sure he'd be all right. She smiled, and for that moment, it was enough for him. Little did he know, this was going to be the day the man in white lab coat performed the very first of many horrific tests on him. As he led him down the hall, his fingers tightly interlocked with the other man's, he looked around. He'd never been down this hall before, and was saddened by its lack of windows, wanting to run back to Lilith and bury himself in her arms, one of the only places he knew to be safe. With a shiver, he reflexively took a step closer to the man who held his hand, looking up at his round face and balding head. He'd always been kind to Abel before, so whatever was going to happen couldn't be all that bad, could it?

He was taken to a bright white room, the walls lined with counters and cupboards, all painted the same blinding white, one wall made entirely of clear polyurethane, and he was lifted onto a stainless steel table, where he kicked his dangling legs gently while the other prepared a needle. He filled it with some sort of tar-black fluid, swirling with a few tiny silver flakes.

"Take off your shirt," he smiled at the silver-haired boy, and Abel unbuckled his belt and tugged off his shirt, which was white with blue trim, and a heart rate monitor attached to his bare chest, where that thin green line could be seen on the computer on the other side of the room, rippling every time his heart beat.

"Lay down," he said politely, smiling, and the boy stared up at him, his gaze fixed on the man's bespectacled gaze. There was something frightening behind that smile, something that made Abel shy away and shake his head.

"N-no…" his legs stopped swinging and he pulled them up onto the table, hugging them protectively to his bare, pale-skinned chest. The silver-haired boy scooted away as the man took a step closer, getting as far to the other side of the table as he could.

"Please?" he kept the needle hidden from Abel, his tone still soft and paternal. "Close your eyes, and lay down. I want you to relax. You'll be all right."

"Wh-where's Cain?"

"He's in the next room," still his tone was gentle, but this time he insisted more firmly, "Now please, lay down." Finally, Abel did as he was told, shivering when the cold metal touched his bare skin, and his eyes drifted shut, but his lip quivered in fear. The sting of that needle caused his eyes to snap open, and he jerked away with a yelp, but the syringe had been emptied into his shoulder already, and the scientist bustled out of the room as quickly as he could manage,

"Wait! No! Don't leave me alone! No!" he jumped off of the table, and sprinted after the scientist, hammering on the door in frustration as it was closed before he could reach it, the lock clicking into place. The balding scientist went to sit on the other side of the glass in a swivel chair at his desk, taking out a pen and a sheet of paper, which he attached to a clipboard. Abel may have been very young, but he knew something wasn't quite right, and that whatever he had been jabbed with wasn't going to be good for him. He paced the room hurriedly a few times, banging on the glass to be let out, only to find that the once kind gaze he had been given was startlingly cold and emotionless. He looked all over, tears stinging the corners of his eyes as he became more and more fearful, looking for any way out. The young boy started to sob quietly.

"Cain! Lilith! Help!" he called through his tears, and he started to shake uncontrollably, rubbing his arms and glancing at the man who now looked upon him with no more kindness than a master to his slave. For a moment, there was nothing but his heavy breathing and the sounds of the beeps coming from the heart rate monitor, which had quickened to an alarming pace. Then, he screamed, long and loud, falling to the floor, pain shooting through all of his limbs like wildfire, every muscle twitching and quivering as he lay on the floor, as if in a seizure. Tears streamed from his eyes as he cried out for his brother and for Lilith, but no help came. The man at his desk, watching every moment, only took notes, and did not come to help him, to release him from this terrible, terrible pain.

When he had finished with Abel, after he had been reduced to a trembling, weeping wreck, the balding man pulled him out of the room, detached the monitor, gave him back is shirt, and moved him to another room, this one bathed in half moon light. Abel's shirt slipped from his fingers as he heard the click of the shutting door, and he collapsed, sobbing, clutching his hair tightly.

"Abel?" a familiar voice. Cain came to him, his touch exactly what Abel had been looking for; that comforting warmth that he felt safe with. Cain hugged him, cradling his head on his shoulder, rubbing his back to soothe him, and did not stop until Abel's sobs had softened a little. He helped him dress again, his own shirt identical to Abel's, but the trim was a deep crimson in color. He led him back to the bed, helping him lay down on his back, and curled up next to him.

"They did it to you too, didn't they? Poked you with things, and watched you hurt…" Abel nodded, sniffling. "They did it to me yesterday." They hadn't seen each other for days prior to this.

They had loved each other dearly from the first day they met, always knowing they were so closely related, even if they were born on opposite ends of the continent. It seemed as if they were attached at the hip, as one never went anywhere without the other, unless they were forcibly separated by the scientists. Tonight, there was nothing separating them from one another, so Cain curled closer to him, cuddling his brother for warmth. Abel held him tightly in return, as if the entire world would fall apart if he let go, and only this seemed to quiet Abel's sobs of terror and pain.


	3. Rage and Hate

((No, I'm not dead, BTW. XD Just lacking motivation in a LOT of areas... Here's the next chapter, and I hope to get more stories up because I've been writing a LOT of things, not just this. 3 Thanks for those of you who are patient with me.))

Thus, they learned to run and hide wherever he could manage, wherever was convenient, whether it be in the twins' room, or even Lilith's when the scientists came to take either of them, but they would find them, and drag them away, kicking and screaming. Away from Lilith, who could do nothing but smile that sad smile, lie to them and tell them they would be all right. Young Cain remained easy-going, despite the awful things they did to him, hoping that, perhaps if he obeyed their wishes they would let him go. Day to day, it kept him going. Abel, however, was not so easy for them to deal with. He would fight and scream, and, honestly, it broke Cain's heart to hear it. Eventually, it got so bad that they had to strap Abel down with thick leather bands to keep him in place.

The effects of frequent injections of that same strange liquid, containing the tiny silver nanomachines, was not immediate, and symptoms of their implanting did not show until after the arrival of their baby sister, Seth, six years later.

Abel sat, waiting, in the same glass windowed prison and shirtless, as always, his ear pressed tight to the door so he could hear the conversation outside.

"… and if one of them dies, surely that will be a loss of valuable work and resources." A male voice, but not of the man that usually experimented on him. He chuckled, remembering what he had done… The first night it was established he was to be strapped down during experimentation, just after he had been injected with those nanomachines, he hadn't gotten away from Abel fast enough, and the boy had lunged at him, tearing at his flesh violently. He'd nearly killed the scientist, and he had to be sent home to a hospital where his wife could be with him in case he didn't make it through. Just the thought of making someone suffer and feel even just a _fraction _of the pain he felt during these awful tests made him giddy, and some strange entity inside him encouraged this violent behavior. He wasn't about to complain.

"Yes, we must be sure that doesn't happen, but if it _does _we have the newest Krusnik to replace the other. If neither of them dies, then we will be in luck," he chuckled, "Three Krusnik… What could be more satisfying? Our results will be that much more accurate." The others agreed, and it was then that Abel discovered another new emotion that he had not known before: Anger. He was filled with rage and hate, and wanted nothing more than to defy these men to his greatest ability, just as he had before, but with all the hate his young corrupted soul could muster, so when they returned, he sat back in the corner glaring through eyes that had acquired a fiendish red glow. They seemed impressed with such a display, and immediately took notes.

"Is that all we are to you? Research? You don't care about _any _of us, do you? We do have feelings, you know, and I don't like it when you hurt me. I don't like your stupid notes either."

"Now, now, calm down and get up on the table. We've been through this before," a skinny man with glasses responded. Abel bared his teeth,

"I don't care!" he jumped up, trembling, his fists clenched angrily, "I'll never help you out again!" They seized him as he tried to run, all six of them having to fight and wrestle with him to pull him onto the table, where they were then forced to strap him down with thick leather binds. No matter how hard he struggled or how loudly he yelled, experimentation was continued as normal, but this time they were using different things on him. Many different chemical combinations that burned him inside and out were used; they had even rubbed acid on his skin, only to sit back and watch as it healed over with superhuman speed. His screams were ear-piercingly loud, and Abel would not doubt that the others could hear him.

As he lay there, strapped down, every one of his nerves on fire, they talked and discussed over him, their mumbling of scientific jargon no more than pointless babble in his fogged brain. He clenched his teeth against the pain, tightening his muscles as his back arched off of the table, putting strain on his bindings. They began to snap, pulling free of the table, his eyes ablaze.

"Get out! Get out! He'll kill us this time!" a female scientist screamed, and they all tripped and stumbled over each other as they tried to get out, and he was able to yank back the woman in the very back, throwing her to the floor. He grinned as she groaned, trying to get to her feet, jumping with a yell for help when several of the glass beakers full of chemicals smashed against the wall beside her head. He tore up her notes, and yet, he couldn't quite bring himself to harm her, but oh how he wanted to, staring down on her fearful face with his crimson eyes. Instead, he grabbed her and threw her violently from the room, sending her crashing into the wall opposite of the door. The red glow was beginning to fade from his eyes, a few strands of pale silver hanging in his blue eyes, which were tainted with red, and he watched as she got up and fled as fast as she could.

When she was gone, he heard someone knock on the glass of his room. Slowly, he turned his head, gasping at the startled face of Cain that was pressed against the glass. Cain dashed into the room, and embraced him tightly. Abel's knees nearly giving way as the nanomachines fell back into their sleep-like state inside him, but he caught himself of Cain's shoulder.

"I saw what you did," Cain said softly.

"It felt really good!" he ginned, pulling back to look at his brother, but it faded almost immediately at the sorrowful look on Cain's face, "What? Cain, if we show them we can defeat them, then they'll leave us alone! We can't just sit here and let them do this! We're humans too, you know."

"They've changed you... Haven't they? You wouldn't have said something like that to me before today... What did they do to you?" he bowed his head, tears welling in his eyes.

"No, wait... Cain, please don't cry. Please? I swear it's still me... I just want them to stop, that's all. It hurts, and I don't like it. You understand, right?"

"Of course... But, Abel... You can't just go around hurting people like that. It isn't right. It doesn't make you any better than they are..."

"But... What else am I supposed to do?"

"Anything but this. You could have killed that woman, and you could have killed the last man. Is that okay with you?"

"No... No I guess it's not..." Abel rested his head on Cain's shoulder, "I'm sorry... I don't know what came over me, I just... I felt so angry all of a sudden, like something else was telling me to do it. I don't understand what's going on..." Slowly, Cain rested his hand on his brother's head, smiling now as he always did, wide and bright.

"That's all right. We'll know when we're supposed to, but for now, it's okay to resist. Just don't hurt anyone, all right?"

"I promise, I won't let it happen again."

"One day, Abel, the four of us... We'll change the world... I can feel it."


	4. Methuselah

It wasn't long before the scientists became weary of their constant rebellion, complaining that they were "getting in the way of good research", so they devised a new plan, seizing the Nightroad brothers and taking them to a small, dark room together. There was a heavy smell in the air, metallic and salty, almost sickening, and yet somehow it was enticing to the both of them, though Cain covered his nose. The lights flicked on, and Cain yelped when his eyes settled on the body of a man, whose throat had been slit only a moment before; the blood he was soaked in was still warm. The voice of one of the scientists came over a speaker above their heads,

"This is a Methuselah, boys. They were created before you, but now they are trying to take over the planet. The two of you were created to kill them. I think you will find you rather like the taste of vampire blood," he chuckled, and then became silent. Cain glanced back at them, glaring. The clipboards were back again… All they ever did was hurt them, sit, and watch… Nothing good could come from this, but it was his brother who did not seem to sense any danger.

Slowly, Abel crept forward, in an almost robotic fashion, driven by a force none of them could see.

"Abel?" Cain crawled around in front of him, finding his eyes were wide and glazed, unfocused, and he completely ignored his twin, who tugged gently on his sleeve. The boy reached out, sticking the tips of two of his fingers into the blood that was seeping across the floor, and brought it to his lips.

"Abel! Wait!" Cain reached out, but Abel sucked the blood from his fingers. His eyes closed, and his jaw fell lax as he was caught up in a heavy wave of pleasure, his head leaned back and is face toward the ceiling. Something inside him, probably the nanomachines, purred with content at the feeding, and so he dipped his fingers in again, taking another taste. Cain crawled closer to him, touching his shoulder. Abel looked back, mostly back to normal, other than the fact that his lips were stained a deep crimson.

"You should try some. It's… Good…" he seemed slightly surprised to be saying such a thing. Cain shook his head, scooting back a short distance. Hungrily, Abel continued, ignoring the horrified protests of Cain:

"No! Abel, don't eat it! That's what they want from you! Please, stop it!" But his efforts were fruitless. Abel did not respond. He shuddered, seemingly in ecstasy, and wiped his entire hand across the red mess on the floor, licking greedily, a stray drop here and there escaping his grasp and staining his once pristine, white shirt, the blue trim turning purple. "STOP!" he grasped the back of Abel's shirt roughly as he leaned over, his tongue emerging to lick it up directly, and Cain tugged hard. Abel halted, and Cain sighed his relief, releasing his brother. Abel snarled, low and animalistic, shoving Cain back with such force that his head hit the floor and his vision blurred and darkened. Abel lapped at the floor, until no more than dried, bloody smears were left of the puddle.

After sitting in silence for a long time, Abel's breathing returned to normal, and he shook his head, wiping his eyes as if he'd been woken from a heavy sleep. He glanced around, and grimaced at the corpse on the floor, which was now surprisingly clean, and found Cain behind him, unconscious. "Cain?" he turned to kneel beside the other, finding him unmoving on the floor. Softly, he gasped, touching Cain's arm. Had he done this? "Cain, please wake up... Please..." he grimaced in sorrow, and cast a teary glare at the men behind their window. He heard one of the men's voices over the speaker,

"Excellent. We must bring him back tomorrow."

They brought Abel alone to be tested with a dead Methuselah several more times. Every time he returned, he became ever so slightly more aggressive toward Cain and Lilith (driving Cain to tears some evenings), and less cooperative toward the men who tormented him with their chemicals. For being only eleven, he was unnaturally strong and it was becoming harder and harder to control the boy with each passing day.


	5. Brothers

"I just wish they would all disappear…" Abel muttered, staring out the window down at the enormous blue sphere that was Earth, his hand against the icy cold glass. He wasn't adjusting well to their new surroundings, taking the move to space harder than any of the others. Lilith had mentioned how much she liked it once, receiving a rather nasty retort from young Abel.

"Who? The Terran?" Cain stood beside him, his cheek against the glass' cool surface, his face toward his brother, "Don't say that, Abel. Lilith says it's not nice to hate people."

"I don't care," he snarled, "I hate them… All of them… They created us, experimented on us, and then sent us away to live on this stupid space station to keep us hidden from everyone else like they're ashamed of us," his fist slammed on the hard surface, "Probably just throw us away when they're done with us…"

"I don't think they'd do that…"

"And what makes you so sure? Why wouldn't they? Isn't that just the way they are? Use us until they can't anymore and then get rid of us and pretend like we never existed. They are wasteful beings who don't care about anyone but themselves! They destroy the Earth like a virus, and then guess who pays for it? We do! What kind of life does that make?!" his tone was no less bitter.

"Oh, come on Abel… They can't _all _be like that…" His blond brows raised toward his pale hair as he pulled away from the window, a deep frown on his lips, his voice no more than a whisper. He hated to see Abel so angry, but he could hardly blame him, considering their current circumstances.

"Any why not? Have you met them? _Any _of them?"

"Well, no, but—" Abel turned to face him, his eyes glinting with rage.

"Then who's to say they _aren't _like that? I've actually seen others when we were back on Earth, and they all act the same way. They don't care about us as long as they can satisfy themselves. Do you know _why _we're here, Cain?"

"Because it was meant to be. I'm glad to be alive, and you should be too." He was saddened by Abel's outburst, and looked with pity on his brother.

"No, they created us because their experiment on Methuselah doesn't mean anything to them anymore! They created the Methuselah, and then when they think the Methuselah are threatening their way of life, they create us to kill them! After all of the Methuselah are gone, what do you think they'll do to us?! They'll make something that can kill us and call it 'science', and continue just like that. It doesn't matter what I do, it doesn't matter what _any _of us do! We'll all just die in the end! When we're… No longer useful…"

"You're wrong, Abel. If you don't like the way your life is, you are the only one who can change it."

"You make it sound _so _easy, Cain! It's not! What do you think we can do all the way up here?! Nothing! And do you know what they're going to do next?"

"Yes... I heard them talking. They said they were going to send us back to our home countries to finish what they started here. We're supposed to be taken there after Seth turns four... I'll go back to Berlin, you to London... And Seth and Lilith will go back to Canada and India."

"Well, what do you think they'll do with us? Treat us nicely?"

"No... Not really..."

"You see? You agree with me. They're horrible, and they don't deserve the lives they have!" he snapped.

"But, weren't you listening to me? Everything happens for a reason. Think about this, Abel: when they finish with us, we might be more powerful than they are. If we are, then what's stopping you from changing the way things are? If your will is strong, you can accomplish anything."

"Sounds just like something _they'd_ say. And you say they've brainwashed _me._" Cain looked hurt, his jaw dropping and a small sound escaped him.

"Brainwashed? Abel, no! They h-haven't!"

"Well, it's true, isn't it?" Abel was completely calm, "They changed me, and convinced you that life is good when it's not. I've decided to think for myself, and I made the choice not to listen to you anymore. Why can't you think for yourself, like I'm always encouraged to?" he continued to stare out the window, watching out of the corner of his eye as Cain began to lose it.

"B-but, no! Don't say things like that! I _d-do _think for myself!"

"I'm sure you do." His tone, however, suggested otherwise. Soft, sensitive Cain could hardly take those accusations without some sort of reaction. Cain's lip quivered,

"Abel... Please stop..."

"Why? So you can run off to them and tell them what a bad boy I am?"

"N-no! Never!" he squeaked.

"Or maybe you'll just go cry to Lilith like you always do."

"N-no, I—"

"_Always. _You'll probably go cry to her right now, won't you?" Just as he said that, a tear had escaped and slid down Cain's cheek. Abel smiled, apparently getting some sick pleasure from tormenting his older twin to tears. Abel thought he was too soft for his own good, and he glanced at his brother to see his pathetic, tear-streaked face. His eyes widened, and he faced Cain.

Instead of weeping, Cain looked angry as ever, that single tear the only one that had fallen. He clenched his fists, and Abel folded his arms across his chest,

"What? What are you going to do now? _Lecture me?_" WHACK! The palm of Cain's hand connected with Abel's cheek, and he staggered back against the window in shock. Cain seemed to relax then, but his expression was still stern and angry, his brows tightly knit and his lips pressed tight together. "Wh-what was that for?!" He'd never done something like that before.

"You deserved it, talking like that. You're always so mean to me and everyone else, so I've decided I'm not going to take it from you. You only do it because you think you can upset me, but not anymore! If you're going to keep acting like this, then I'm not sharing a room with you! Goodbye, Abel." He grabbed his things, and left Abel standing there, finding another room down the hall where he could sleep. No, he did not regret anything he had just done, and wouldn't. He wanted to prove his point, and if this was the only way to do it, then so be it. There was no reason he should have to put up with that behavior.

His own action had left Abel alone to think, the stinging on his cheek a reminder of how, once again, he had managed to push away those who were close to him. He sat at the foot of his bed, staring at the open door down the hall where Cain had left him until late into the night, hoping Cain would return so Abel could apologize for trying to make him feel bad, but he did not.


	6. Relapse

Abel's anger seemed to subside as time passed from that moment on, and he was far more gracious and polite to his brother, to Seth, and Lilith, and kept his head down and his eyes focused on the floor when he passed by Cain. Lilith stopped Cain once and asked him if he'd been speaking to Abel. He'd told her he had been, and she smiled and thanked him for setting his rebellious brother straight, but failed to tell her the method he had adopted, and that he had chosen to sleep in a separate room; he did not want to worry her that they would never make up. Cain was sure they would, but Abel had to come forward and apologize face to face before that was going to happen. Cain got his wish later that evening, as he was pulling his silken, red nightshirt over his blond head.

"C-Cain...?" Abel's voice was tiny and nervous from behind the bedroom door, "Can I come in...?"

"Yes," he said simply, but kept his back to the door as it silently slid open, the click of the latch signaling its close.

"Cain, I... I'm sorry for the way I acted... For the way I've been acting. I just... I can't help it, you know?" Cain turned down the bedsheets, refusing to accept _that _feeble apology. It sounded like an excuse, just like it always was. "I... I'm so sorry... I really didn't mean it..." Now, the blond boy was taking great care to ensure that the covers were perfectly turned back, obsessively taking his time, folding the comforter over neatly, then the multi-colored quilt Lilith had made him beneath that, the soft, white cotton sheets folded perfectly. Abel stood in silence for a moment longer, and then he burst: "Ok, I'm really sorry I've been so mean to you!" he threw his arms around Cain, "I don't want to sleep alone again! Please, Cain, I hate living without you and I promise I'll never, _ever _do it again! Please, forgive me! PLEASE!" Cain sighed, and turned to face his sibling.

"All right, that's better. I forgive you, Abel," a glowing smile tugged the corners of his lips, "You've learned your lesson." He returned the hug, and Abel sighed deeply with relief.

"Here, you don't even have to move your stuff back tonight. I'll help you do it tomorrow, all right?" Abel was already in his own pajamas, and they were silky like Cain's, but of a deep cobalt. Abel hopped into bed on the side Cain hadn't turned down, peeling the covers back to snuggle beneath the blankets. Cain did the same, and clicked off the desk lamp on his bedside table, the smile still in place as he drifted off to sleep.

The Nightroad brothers got along better then, and even played together with Seth during the day with her toys. It was nice to be alone, and live without fear, but Cain knew that, very soon, Seth would be turning four, and he felt the heaviness of dread settle in his stomach when remembering that he and Abel's experimentation had started at that age, and now they had even worse things planned back in the laboratories where the four Krusnik had originally been created. The machinery had been updated and their methods had improved for whatever god-awful experiments they were doing. The brothers agreed not to go without some resistance, if they did indeed decide to come. Foolish hope kept their moods high, that the scientists would never show, but in truth, the twins knew better.

Finally the day came, where Cain, Abel, and Seth were cut off from Lilith, and Seth had run and hidden beneath Cain and Abel's bed. The door swung inward, and a female scientist, in her white lab coat as they all were, her brown hair in a tight knot at the back of her head, black heels clicking on the floor, her white lab coat in gleaming perfection, entered. She was smiling brightly, showing two perfect rows of very straight, white teeth. She looked far friendlier than any of the others, but Abel simply glared at her as she approached them.

"My, my, what handsome young men the two of you have become," she smiled.

"You're not taking us, so don't even try," Cain muttered. A sigh passed her lips, and the smile dropped,

"You aren't going to make this easy for me, are you?"

"Not when we know you'll run tests on her, and then sit back and watch while she screams and cries. It's sick," Abel's eyes glowed deep red hatred. She looked with interest at his actions, as if she were going to pull out that godforsaken clipboard again, though she didn't have it on her person.

"Where's your sister?" She left the brothers, walking around the room and turning things over, looking underneath others. Cain tensed. Abel felt it, but he himself was calm otherwise.

"We're not telling you," Abel growled. He couldn't keep his cool facade as she neared the bed, becoming jittery as she was starting to lean over to look under it, to see if the girl was hiding there. Abel never gave her the chance. He lunged for her, snarling, his fingernails slicing at her skin. He'd never once done something like this before, at least not this violent, though he had come up with many musings and such late at night. His canines had lengthened to fangs, eyes glowing red, and his hair stood on end a little, a few strands here and there.

"ABEL, NO!" He'd already come so far... calmed down so much. And now, they were here again to make him angry and uncontrollable.

Abel knocked her over, slamming her against the floor and tearing at every inch of flesh that he could reach, her screams attracting half a dozen other scientists, their shouting added to the commotion on the floor casting the room in utter chaos. Cain could hear Seth crying beneath his bed as he struggled to pull Abel away from the woman, but there was nothing in Abel's mind but the need to destroy this woman, to rip and tear her apart until there was nothing left. One man, short and beefy, pulled a syringe out of his jacket, and injected it into Abel's shoulder. Abel just managed to bury his fangs in the woman's shoulder as the sedatives began to take control and he slowly fell limp, and quiet, his jaw slackening enough to release her. As the room quieted, except for Seth's sobbing, she pushed him off, into Cain's waiting arms, who had been standing back and gazing in shock as Abel was rendered unconscious. She got up, holding her torn shoulder and shirt together the best she could.

"Good lord…" the man beside her stated, "I've never seen a reaction like that… Must be something that is triggered when they feel they are in danger…"

"Never mind that. You get the girl, and you two grab the boys. I heard the girl over there," she panted, lifting her undamaged arm to point at Cain and Abel's bed, and instantly the scientists trudged over and dragged her out from under it, kicking and screaming. Cain jumped up to aid her,

"NO! YOU CAN'T TAKE HER! NOT SETH! LEAVE HER ALONE!" he fought them too, tying to get them to let go of the poor crying girl as she reached for her brothers, crying out in fear,

"Cain! Help me!" she screamed, fighting her captors, struggling, but Cain was pushed back over and over, dragged away by two others as another male lifted his sleeping brother, his swinging fists meeting nothing but air, the very few nanomachines inside him having no effect, not like they did in Abel.

"SETH! SETH! ABEL! NO! LET ME GO!" he screamed as he was carried off down the hall, in a completely different direction from his siblings. They dragged him, his feet fruitlessly trying to find a hold on the painted, steel floors, to a tiny, circular door all the way on the opposite end of the ship, and opened it, revealing a compartment that was no more than four feet wide and three feet tall, a single fluorescent bulb offering the only light in the tiny space. "NO!" his arms and legs flailed helplessly, and he was pitched forward onto the floor of the tiny room. He already knew what it was for. This was one of the many tiny pods attached to the ship, usually meant for escape purposes only, and it would return him to Earth, whether he liked it or not. The heavy door clanged shut, and the bulb flickered and died, casting him in darkness. He hammered on the thick steel door, yanking on the handle to find that it was locked, and collapsed against it with a dry sob, his forehead pressed to the cool, white-enameled metal. The horrible things awaiting him down there were not preventable, but he still did not want to come to terms with it. Who knew when he would see his brother and sister again.


	7. Krusnik 01

((I'm really proud of this chapter.^^ I like the way it turned out. Sorry I haven't been posting as often as I should, I just want to get as much of the story done as I can, if not the whole thing, before I start updating regularly.))

Azure eyes fluttered open, and Cain found his vision blurred and foggy as he looked around. There were hundreds of glowing red and green lights and computer screens, all displaying data he could not read from this distance. He shifted, finding he was in some sort of cylindrical tank filled with water, standing upright from the floor to the ceiling... And it came rushing back to his awakening mind. The cryo-stasis tank in the underground laboratory beneath the bustling streets of Berlin, which was part of the UN's classified operations. He'd seen it when they first brought him here, and hadn't found out fast enough what they planned to put inside before they knocked him out and forced him in.

Now, the question was, how long had he been there? For all he knew, it could have been years, as every little motion ached like he hadn't used his muscles in ages. His palms met the perfectly transparent surface of the glass, and he squinted, trying to clear his vision, and attempted to swallow, only to find that the mouth piece had a long tube that had been inserted directly into his trachea. He gagged and struggled, banging on the glass to try to get someone's attention, but no one was there. He panicked, hammering his fists continually against the hard, thick glass, scrabbling at it with his nails, then ham-mering at it again, but simple human strength would not be enough... Inside, he felt something stir, like an enormous, swarthy beast that had come to devour him. The blackness spread like a fog through him, to his arms and legs, and his muscles surged with a power he had never known before. This time, the glass groaned as he struck it, a crack flashing across the surface, growing with each passing second, and each strike of his balled fist. A trail of minuscule, silver bubbles signified the tank was leaking.

A final, powerful blow sent the glass shattering, the water spilling onto the dark, tiled floor, and Cain's fingers clumsily scrabbled at the mouthpiece, pulling on it as hard as he could. He choked and retched so hard his stomach began to ache as the slender tube was dislodged from his throat, and he collapsed on jelly-like legs at the base of the tank, coughing.

When the cough had subsided, his lungs finally drawing the air properly, which was so very different from the nearly pure oxygen he had been given in the tank, he gingerly lowered a leg onto the black floor below. Carefully, he used the wickedly sharp edge of the glass to steady himself, and leaned to swing his remaining leg over the side. His foot slipped out from beneath him on the soaked tile, and he fell, shredding his leg and hand on the broken glass, falling into the puddle below, howling in pain. The shards on the floor were unkind to his bare flesh, and the ungodly cold of the laboratory and the tile combined made the pain nearly unbearable.

Tears streamed from his eyes as he lay there, in a pool of blood, glass, and water, calling for his siblings, for Lilith, for _anyone _to come to him, but no one was there to ease the pain, and no one was there to hear his screams. Forced to lay completely still, he swept sopping blond locks from his eyes with his uninjured hand, and his eyes scanned the little bit of the room that he could see. What did Krusnik 01 mean? It was right there, on the screen below the broken tank. It said "Experimentation on Krusnik 01 terminated." Is that what they called him now? Not Cain Nightroad, but Krusnik 01, like he was a simple lab animal to be labeled and numbered, set on a shelf with countless others of worthless value. Cain frowned, realizing what Abel must have been feeling. What gave them the right to do what they did to him? He was human just like they were! ...Right?

Slowly, he rolled over onto his stomach, grinding his teeth, and forced himself to his feet so he could get a better look at the screen. Strangely enough... He felt no pain as he strained himself... Beneath the blood on his hand there was no wound now, and his inner thigh was just as intact as it had been before he had fallen. Oh, lord... What had they done to him?!

Shivering with the cold, Cain tapped the keys, allowing him to access the file labeled "Experiment Krusnik 01" It asked for his name, so he typed it, and, lucky for him, it accepted his name and the file opened. Inside was countless numbers of additional files about him, Abel, Lilith, Seth, this lab, and something called the "Red Mars Project." He clicked on his own file, finding a picture of himself staring back at him, a shining smile on his face, his current age of fourteen as of... Well, that must be today's date (meaning he couldn't have been in that tank more than a month and a half), his height, weight, hair color, eye color, and a calendar with the past month that he had spent inside the tank outlined on it.

Deciding to start with the day he was placed inside the tank, he read through all the notes, finding only a few things of interest here and there, such as the testing on his genetics and the influencing of certain dominant genes to make him more resilient. They had taken notes on everything, and it was here that he discovered that the genetic alteration made him more resistant to injury and sickness, though if he _was _injured or sick, he would recover in a matter of minutes, to a few hours, or as long as a few days depending on his condition. Cain was deeply interested in what they were doing to him, so he continued only to be saddened by the very little information presented. Until he reached two weeks prior to today.

**Creation of a "Krusnik"**

**by Dr. Daniel Putzkammer**

"Oh... God..." Cain clapped a hand over his mouth, blue eyes wide as he found himself staring at a photograph of a corpse, though whether it was male or female was difficult to determine with the state it was in: it was mangled horribly, flesh falling off of bone as if it had started to decompose at an alarming rate, blood turning the alabaster sheets of the hospital gurney a ruddy shade. Leather straps kept the corpse fixed tightly to the table, cutting into the deteriorating flesh. Immediately, Cain began to scan the text on the screen:

_All experiments with the nanomachines have ended in failure. All subjects with the nanomachines introduced intravenously suffered from extreme aggression, followed shortly by insanity, internal hemorrhaging, and death by either suicide or blood loss. The case shown here was particularly unique; the subject reacted violently and showed an increase in speed, strength, and shortened reflex, but the nanomachines seem to function as a living organism, attacking the subject's defenseless immune system. His death came two days after injection._

He scrolled down, finding more text, and continued to read:

_Recent experiments on subjects Cain Nightroad, Abel Nightroad, Seth Nightroad, and Lilith Sahl have lead us to believe that, because of their enhanced genetics, their bodies will hold up to the introduction of the nanomachines, and experimentation will begin at once. We will be receiving Cain next week._

Then, there was another entry, from yesterday:

_Experiment Krusnik 01 successful. He has shown a remarkable increase in sensory and motor skills, and his physical abilities have heightened one hundred percent. The other three have been given different levels of nanomachines, subject Krusnik 02 the most, and it seems the physical increase in power is completely dependent on the amount injected into the bloodstream. We have had to increase the sedative doses to five times the normal amount in subject Krusnik 01, as the nanomachines have become increasingly efficient at removing foreign substances from his body and increased the healing process. Further experimentation may yield disastrous results, as those back in London have already had a rather horrific incident with Krusnik 02, resulting in the deaths of three men. Further experiments have been terminated, and Krusnik 01 will be monitored for the next few days._

Well, that hardly explained why they weren't here _now. _But perhaps he _was _still being watched? Cain looked around for any sign of a camera, but realized that just because he couldn't see it didn't mean it wasn't there. He finally settled on running since he had the chance, bolting for the door, his feet splashing in the water on the floor. He wasn't going to allow them to do those awful things to him anymore, and it was their own fault that he was getting away now.

The door clicked and swung outward, and the blond boy bolted down the hall, shocked by how much colder the air was out here compared to the room he was just in. Considering the fact that he was naked as the day he was born and soaked to the bone definitely did not help him. He sprinted down the hall, the artificial fluorescent light above him hurting his eyes and made him squint, but he ran on, stopped only by an enormous pair of solid steel doors, a small, dark screen on the right hand side.

Cain approached the screen, his breath quickened by his running, and touched it to see if anything would happen. A green light passed beneath his fingertips and he jerked his hand back, staring at the screen. It stayed blank for a while, and then turned green as the locks inside the door clanked and shifted heavily, and the doors split down the center and slid to the side, allowing him to slip through.

Lucky for him, all the running kept him warm, but the tips of his fingers felt like they were encrusted in ice, and he could hardly feel his toes. Goosebumps had formed where the chilling air still bit, and it worsened as he skid to a halt in front of a wide window, the only one he had seen so far. Outside, there was an enormous cylindrical tower with a pointed, cone-shaped cap. It was painted bright white, and fastened to a metallic, scaffold-like structure that was nearly as tall as the tower itself. Cain recognized it instantly.

"A rocket?" he muttered. He was currently being trained in rocketry, or had been before the incident that landed him inside that glass, water-filled prison. He was the top of his class already; most of those that took the very same class did not reach his level for several years, where it had taken him merely three months. He pressed his nose to the icy glass, gazing in wonder. What on earth could they need the rocket for? His training has also extended to piloting some sort of ship and he knew Abel, Seth, and Lilith were following a similar program. Maybe the rocket was part of that? Or... Maybe not. It looked a little old...

Cain continued down the brightly lit hall, walking this time, and wrapped his arms around himself for warmth. It did very little, and he doubted there was anywhere nearby where he could get a blanket.

After what felt like hours and hours of endless hallway, Cain was shivering so hard he had to find a place to sit and rest. He found a tight corner, and this time did not feel the bite of the floor or the walls on his pale skin as he huddled tightly against them. His knees were brought to his chest, his arms around them, his formerly wet hair now dry, but the water had already done its damage and sapped precious heat away from him. His eyes closed and his brain began to swim in his body's numbness, drifting off into space with his brother close by. He smiled, resting his forehead on his knees, and fell asleep.

Cain awoke finally, but did not open his eyes; the sun shining through his window was too bright and bothered them. He sighed deeply, finding his arms wrapped securely around a fluffy pillow, Cain himself covered in soft, warm blankets. He felt the strangest urge to roll himself up tightly in the blankets and never let go, considering the coldness he felt in that dream last night. Or was it a dream? He was still naked beneath the sheets, and he never remembered sleeping like that, and this bed was small and without Abel, and he never slept alone either. Unless he and Abel were still fighting and the apology had all been a dream too?

A set of footsteps caught his attention, and he did not get up, but listened to them. An unfamiliar voice met his ear.

"Are you awake, boy?" the man asked him in German, "You gave us quite the scare, running off like that. Anette, get this boy some food." The nurse beside him nodded once, and strode off. Cain sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes, the blankets dropping to his waist.

"What... What have you done to me...?" he asked, a worried frown set on his lips, "And Abel? You did it to him too, and he killed someone. He hates you people..."

"Yes, I know. Don't worry about your brother, he's safe, and so are you. And you're all right. We just changed a few sings is all. No harm done." He was smiling. Cain shook his head,

"No... You've done something terrible. I read the notes."

"What? You read my notes?" Apparently _this_ was Daniel Putzkammer.

"Yes... All of them. You said Abel killed some people... And this experiment you did... I was injured, but it healed. Right here, see?" he held up his formerly injured hand, and now there wasn't even a scar there.

"Oh, my... It seems you have taken to them even better than we expected you to. You see, the nanomachines are _my _experiment. We found them on Mars years ago, and tried them on many people."

"It's not something you should be proud of, you know. Those people were tortured because of you. Why did you do it?"

"My boy, it really is not so bad as you make it sound. They were unimportant people," he waved a hand nonchalantly. Cain jerked his hand back, his brows knitting,

"Unimportant? No, everyone is important, no matter what they do or don't do with themselves. Everyone means something. You can't say that some lives have no value, because we all do. Now, I want to go back to my brother, because it sounds like you've given him an even worse time than you gave me. Abel would never hurt someone unless provoked, so you must have done something _awful._" Dr. Putzkammer looked slightly astounded.

"Hmmm... Amazing. You managed to keep all of your personality and cognitive abilities it seems. We were afraid that you would lose some of that lovely brilliance of yours to them. I wonder if 02 faired the same?"

"His _name _is Abel. Stop calling him that. He's not just some pet, and neither am I." Dr. Putzkammer chuckled,

"No, of course not. I was mistaken. I apologize. You _are_, however, a valuable asset to the Red Mars Project." Cain could remember seeing a file on the computer with that name. A shame he hadn't clicked on it too before he ran... Then he'd know exactly what they were planning to do with the four of them. But he hadn't thought it was very important until now.

"What's that?"

"The Red Mars Project? Oh, we'll get to that. You'll know soon enough."

"I'd like to know right now. Why are you doing this to us? Does it have something to do with that project?"

"In essence, yes it does," he smiled, "But, that's all I can tell you for now. You'll continue your schooling for aircraft and spacecraft piloting, earn your official military rank, graduate, and the four of you will be sent on the journey of a lifetime. Lucky for me, I'll be joining you. I'd love to meet the other three. Are they anything like you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I suppose you wouldn't know that... Did you know that you were exposed to the nanomachines before this?"

"Yes, but—" Anette returned with a tray, set with silverware, a bowl of chicken noodle soup, a hot roll that was lightly buttered, and a mug of hot cocoa. She smiled, pulled out a table that extended over Cain's upper legs, and placed the tray on it. Over one arm, she was also carrying his clothes, and she left them on the foot of the bed.

"There you are. Anything else, Doctor?"

"No, thank you Anette. I'll call you if I need something." She nodded and gave the pair of them some privacy. Cain picked up his spoon,

"But they did different things with us... And I guess it wasn't so many of them, the nanomachines, was it?"

"No, it wasn't. And that group was—dare I say it—incompetent. Their methods were crude at best, causing more harm than good to the four of you. Their primitive facilities are nothing but a pile of rubbish compared to our top-of-the-line laboratory, wouldn't you agree?" Cain nodded, sipping the hot soup. It felt lovely on his insides, making him forget all about the numbing cold of last night. He tore off a piece of the bread and dipped it in the broth.

"They were terrible to us, treating us like rats... They turned Abel into a beast, and he was always in a bad mood. I hate seeing him like that," he ate it, "But the lab in London had a problem still, didn't they?"

"Ah, yes... They did, and that was part of the reason we stopped our own experiments," he watched as Cain stared blankly into his soup before taking off another chunk of the bread, dipping it in again and consuming it, "That, and we feared that you may lose consciousness to them. Those men were careless, not realizing what a valuable individual you really are..." He reached out and stroked a single strand of Cain's flaxen hair affectionately, causing the boy to pause in his eating and eye the doctor skeptically.

"What do you mean we could lose consciousness to them...?" He started on his soup after taking a sip of the hot chocolate.

"You see, the nanomachines are an aggressive entity, and they try to completely take over their host. We feared we'd lose your brilliant minds to their carnal ways, and, though the chances are very slim that you'd actually end up succumbing to them, we don't want to risk it. It's not worth it, you see."

"Oh... Okay... So... Like your notes said, they're like an organism, but they're machines?"

"Yes, that's correct." Cain stared down at his soup for a long time before actually taking another bite. A few bites later, just before Dr. Putzkammer left, Cain spoke again,

"So, what will you do with me now?"

"Since your testing is finished, we were going to send you back up to meet your brother and sister. Is that all right?" Cain brightened slightly.

"Of course it is. I want to see them again, especially Abel."

"Then I'll have you back by tomorrow, as soon as I can find your clothes again..." he stood and scratched his head a few times, shaking his head. He turned, patted the blond boy on the head, and left him there to finish his lunch.


	8. Experiments

Reunited after months of separation, the twins were never more than an arm's length apart while in the Ark, glad to be thousands of miles above the Earth, where there was no one to tear them apart again. Seth clung exclusively to Lilith for months, and Lilith tired herself out quickly watching over her small brood during all hours of the night so they could sleep peacefully, hoping this would simply pass and they could return to a more normal life.

Eventually they calmed down and could enjoy regular meals as a family, chattering and laughing like normal, and even slept normally in their own beds without Lilith having to watch. She was thrilled, and sure that their experimentation had finally ended once and for all.

Cain awoke after a late night playing board games with his brother, checking his clock. It was nearly noon already? Wow, he'd never slept in that long before. Cain yawned and sat up in bed, stretching and rubbing his eyes.

"Abel, are you awake?" But Abel was already gone, his bed neatly made and orderly. So, Cain got up and dressed in his black pants and red-and-white tunic, combing his blond hair before slipping out the door. Cain walked with a happy spring as he searched for his brother, greeting Seth and Lilith but didn't stay and talk for very long. They hadn't seen Abel today at all, but Cain knew he usually went to the library without telling anyone, so he made for it, humming a happy tune that matched his stride. He was interrupted by a tall man, with neatly combed and side-parted sandy brown hair, a kind smile on his face. He wore a labcoat, and his face had an almost stereotypical Germanic structure. Cain looked up at him, only level with his collar bones, astounded.

"D-Doctor Putzkammer...? What are you doing here?" Out of habit, Cain spoke to him in German, just like he did to everyone else he had ever spoken to in the lab in Berlin.

"Cain. I'm glad I found you. Come with me. Abel is helping us this afternoon." He spoke in German as well, and gestured for Cain to follow him. He did, almost shyly falling into step behind him, and they headed toward the medical ward, Putzkammer typing a number into the keypad to admit them to a sealed portion where they usually performed surgeries. Cain shuddered as the cool air hit him, the smell reminding him of the horrible places he had been subjected to experiments.

"I need you to wash up and put on this gown," he held it out, and Cain took it, his brow wrinkling, but he did as he was told. He crept out, washed his hands up to his elbows, and once again followed the doctor, who was also gowned. Cain felt extremely uneasy as he was brought directly into the brightly-lit surgery room. On a metal table across the room was a body, the cover tented strangely over it, and two other gowned men were shuffling about (one a redhead and the other a brunette), taking notes and checking machines. Once they saw Cain and Putzkammer, they greeted them.

"S-so... What are we doing here...?"

"Uncover zhe patient, vould you?" To Cain's surprise, the doctor had a rather thick accent when he spoke to the others in English, and Cain stared, shocked, when one of the others stepped up and pulled back the covers over the body on the table, exposing only the torso. It became apparent why the cover was tented in such a way, and Cain gasped in shock.

Incised from collar bones to groin, then perpendicular to that across the collar bones and above the hips, the two halves of this child's—because it was apparent that this person was very young—body was pulled open and pinned back like an animal for dissection. But that was hardly the worst in Cain's eyes. He realized that the machines monitoring vital signs of this body were working and beeping, the patients exposed organs shining in the bright light of the room, his lungs ballooning and deflating rhythmically, the heart beating slowly and calmly. He could see the stress on the great arteries above the heart as it contracted, suppressing the urge to vomit as he saw the aorta pulse as it guided the life-giving substance to the rest of the body. Cain fell to the floor, unable to tear his eyes away.

"Who-who is that?! What are you doing to him?! H-he's still alive!" Cain was lifted to his feet and shackled to another stainless steel operating table, his arms pulled back to an almost painful position to keep them out of the way. He was rendered immobile and stripped of his clothing. From this angle, he could see the face of the boy they were operating on, a mask covering his mouth and nose to deliver a steady stream of a sedative mixed with oxygen to keep him docile. He was fair-skinned and silver haired, his face the mirror image of Cain's. The blond boy cried aloud, squirming in his bound position, his eyes brimming with tears as he shouted hysterically,

"ABEL! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HIM!? WHYYYYYY?! LETUSGO, LETUSGO, LETUSGO! PLEEEEASE!" Cain thrashed and howled, sobbing and wailing, screaming as the doctor pulled out his instruments and selected a scalpel. The shining, silver instrument in hand, he pulled a mask over his nose and mouth, and approached the boy, lowering the sharp blade to his skin.

"NOOOOO PLEASE! DON'T DO THIS!" he squealed, releasing a pained scream when the blade bit into his skin, sending an electric arc straight to his brain, every nerve bristling, bringing goosebumps to his skin that had nothing to do with the chill of the lab. Putzkammer made his incisions at random along Cain's chest, stomach, and arms, cutting deep and excising sections of his flesh of varying thickness from simply skinning the surface to deep, wide gashes, mopping the trickles of blood with a gauze sponge. Cain yelped and cried, his flesh burning, and he couldn't look away, watching his wounds with wide eyes. His skin prickled alongside the pain, and the incisions started to close. The other masked and gowned men gasped, but Putzkammer simply nodded, as if the reaction was expected.

"Take notes. Zhis is important."

"D-doctor... Why do we have to do it this way...? Can't we... Put the boy to sleep? Like the other one?"

"No. He must be avake. Unlike his brozer, he vill not try to get avay. He is not violent. And I need to haf one awake and one asleep. It makes for better results," he replied quite seriously. They tested Cain's healing rate for chemical burns, and forcibly fractured both femurs and his left humerus, satisfied with the results. Dr. Putzkammer plugged his nose, and as Cain gasped for breath, poured a solution of cyanide and arsenic down his throat. It seared his insides, and he screamed, his throat constricting, his breaths coming short. He struggled weakly, and his eyes rolled back, his body rocked with violent convulsions. He retched, foaming at the mouth, spitting up yellow bile, choking on it, and Dr. Putzkammer stood and watched, noting the reaction. His red-haired assistant bent over, his hands on his knees, trembling, sweating, and very pale, his own breathing short like the blond boy's. The brunette backed away, standing against the back wall, his brows wrinkled.

Cain's breathing and vital signs returned to normal, and he slowly became lucid again, his heart rate and breathing immediately spiking,

"Stop! No more! P-please!" The boy was weeping again, but Dr. Putzkammer paid him no heed, and with a completely emotionless expression, clamped his hands over the boy's nose and mouth. Cain made a muffled squeal, kicking his skinny legs and struggling, but Putzkammer never let up, even after Cain's struggles had ceased and he fell still.

"Make a note. After being subjected to various messods of torture, all resulting in deass... Zhe subject regenerates and vakes up, good as new." He was completely calm as he watched life return to the boy yet again.

"P-please... St-stop this... Please..." Cain begged weakly.

"Oh, ve are not finished yet," Putzkammer stroked Cain's blond hair gently. Cain whimpered helplessly, and started to weep.

The twins were gone for four days, and when they were finally returned to Lilith's care, they didn't sleep for weeks at a time, finally fainting in odd places like the halls and in chairs at dinner, or on the floor, back-to-back, in the computer labs. They always had dark circles under their eyes, the whites of which were always bloodshot and the irises nearly seemed to be a dull gray these days. They hardly ate, and were losing weight rapidly, much to Lilith's concern, but she couldn't persuade them to eat, though she and Seth tucked them into bed when they stumbled across them unconscious. Fortunately for the women, the experimentation on them was minimal.

Even when sleep did finally claim the twins, they woke screaming and sobbing, clinging to each other and fearing for their lives.

"I hate him, Cain... I hate him so much... He's a bad man, and I just... I can't stand him!"

"What if he comes for us again, Abel? What will we do?"

"I... I don't think there's anything we _can _do... They know how to keep us under control... We're not strong enough to fight them off."

"M-maybe... When we get older we can... We can actually defend ourselves?"

"Maybe... I hope so..." Abel gripped his brother tighter, "Maybe Lilith or Seth can help us..."

"I don't think so. They couldn't help us now... Besides, I don't want them to get hurt too..." After that, they didn't hear from the doctor again for a very long time.


	9. Arrival on Mars

"Would you boys like something to eat?"

"No, thank you, Lilith. I'm fine." Cain smiled at her, and then adjusted his glasses and returned his gaze to the screen, glancing out the window on occasion as the rust-colored planet grew larger and larger with each passing minute.

"Abel?"

"No, that's all right. I'll eat in a little bit." This job required their entire focus to perform, and they would be landing within minutes.

"Well, Seth, what about you?"

"In just a minute," the dark-haired girl answered. As their medic, Lilith wasn't particularly skilled in piloting this behemoth, known as the Ark to the people aboard. They were carrying nearly five thousand passengers, five thousand lives were in the hands of the three young Nightroads—the twins were twenty-three and Seth was thirteen—and they would ensure their safe landing on the ground.

"How long until we land?" she asked, looking at the seemingly barren rusty planet below them, capped with bright white.

"A few minutes," Abel answered.

"All right, I'll go back and check the passengers. There has been something going around recently," she shook her head, "Poor things..." With a sweep of her crimson hair, she was gone, leaving Abel staring at the door she had went through. He sighed, and returned to his work. So far, so good.

"Abel... When we return to Earth, I want you to take me to London. I hear it's a beautiful city."

"Oh, it is," Abel smiled, "You'd love it. I'll show you Parliament, Big Ben... I'll even take you across Tower Bridge if you'd like. Maybe during the winter, when the Thames is coated with ice and city in snow... Get you the best tea... And if I do, promise me we'll go see Berlin too." He looked up at his blond counterpart, who was also smiling, but wider and brighter, something that Abel himself never did.

"Berlin has a Parliament building too, but it goes by the name Reichstag. And Schloß Charlottenberg... It's beautiful too."

"There's a castle in the middle of the city?"

"Oh yes, and the Tiergarten, it's a zoo. It has the largest selection of animals in the world. I went there once... But, I can't remember if it was before or after they started experimenting on us..." Cain glanced at Seth, who was so focused on her work that she hadn't even heard their conversation, and chuckled a little. The door behind them opened again, and Abel glanced back, checking to see if it was Lilith, only to growl and turn away when he saw who it really was: Dr. Putzkammer. Once he had figured it out it was _him _that had had them experimented on, he could never look at him without thinking all sorts of death threats. Cain touched his shoulder gently.

The doctor came and leaned over the panel, looking over all their measurements, checking their flight paths. Abel rolled his eyes, but Cain would have agreed with him if he'd voiced his protest. Who was this man to come over and judge them when he never had the extensive training they had? The UN had set up the program especially for the three of them, and had established the medical program Lilith had gone through themselves, so they would have far better training than anyone else. Well, the man was a doctor, so perhaps he thought he knew better as a result.

He patted Abel on the shoulder, and Abel shrugged it off with a soft growl, turning away to show his hatred. Cain's long, blond braid fell over his shoulder as he leaned over his keypad, flicking a switch that was across the panel near the window. It was nearly time for them to begin the preparations for their entrance into Mars' atmosphere. He checked their flight speed, slowing them slightly so they didn't enter too quickly, the barometric pressure of the ship, which read at 760 mm Hg, as it should be, and the angle at which they would be entering, which was a nice 30 degrees. Still, all was going according to plan. Abel sighed and relaxed in his seat, tapping his fingers on the armrest.

"I can't wait to get on the ground again... I don't care if we can't leave the facility... At least they'll leave us alone there... Assuming Putzkammer behaves himself. He's a disgusting man, and by the look of him he wishes he could turn us into his laboratory pets again." He folded his arms across his chest.

"Maybe he does, but we can't change what he feels. It doesn't matter anyway, he won't keep that up, I'm sure. He can't while we still have free will." Cain smiled.

A few minutes later the Ark had touched safely on the rusty surface of Mars, and they had connected the ship's main doors to the facility, the passengers disembarking. As the captains, Cain, Abel, and Seth stood and saw them off—men, women, children, the young and the very old—all carrying luggage of all sorts with them. A little girl, no more than six or so, was grasping the hand of a woman tightly, a stuffed rabbit clutched tightly in the other. At one point, said rabbit was dropped, and the little girl started to howl as she was ushered down the ship's gangplank, struggling and reaching for her lost toy. Cain was about to help her, but, to his astonishment, Abel was the one who stepped up, stooping down to sweep the rabbit up before it was trampled beneath countless numbers of other feet, and followed the woman who was still dragging the struggling child along. He did not catch up with them until they were off the ship, where they stopped,

"Oh, _what _is it this time, Evelynn?" the woman scowled at the girl, who was weeping now.

"I dropped him! I dropped Bunny! Please, Aunt Gabe, let me go get him!"

"No, child, we don't have time for that! We have to get to—!" her eyes went wide as Abel stepped up behind the girl, his height and brilliant white clothing in stark contrast to the dark metal walls of the facility, making him hard to miss.

"Here, I believe this is yours," he leaned over, and handed the gray rabbit to Evelynn, "Take care not to drop it again. You could lose it here, but if it gets lost and I see it again, I will make sure it's returned to you." The corners of his mouth tugged into a soft smile. The girl blushed beet red, smiled, and tucked her face away in her aunt's clothes. Abel straightened again.

"Oh, don't mind her, she can be such a troublesome child sometimes!" her Aunt chuckled, "She's lost that old thing so many times, I'm surprised she still has it! But, thank you, Lieutenant Colonel Nightroad," she smiled girlishly at him, "Maybe we'll see each other again?"

"Maybe," Abel said. Cain peeked around the corner and smiled; it seemed Lilith had quite the impact on him. He'd never have done this otherwise.

"Abel," he caught his twin's attention, and that of the two he'd been talking to, "Everyone's off. We have to get our things together too."

"Where are we staying?"

"South end of the facility. We have an entire wing to ourselves, can you believe it?" he grinned from ear to ear.

"Hello, Colonel," she said in the same girlish tone. Cain waved and grabbed the back of Abel's robe, tugging firmly.

"Come on, brother."

"Thank you for bringing Bunny back!" Evelynn called as Abel followed his brother, hugging the rabbit close.


	10. Death

Cain stared at the screen in disbelief, his hand clasped over his mouth as the image of death and destruction flashed before his wide eyes. How could something of this scale happen on Earth? Nuclear weapons, famine, disease, war, overpopulation... The planet was dying, and there was not a single thing he could do about it all the way out here on the Red Planet. His shoulders sagged and tears brimmed his eyes as he watched the broadcast, but this was not quite live feed. Messages from Earth, even now, took a little less than fifteen minutes to reach them, and this news broadcast had been recorded and sent to them by some of Dr. Putzkammer's subordinates. Cain had only just found it attached to an email from the head German member from the UN on his computer five minutes ago. He gripped his arms and shuddered in horror at the gruesome images before him of the dead and dying; he'd never seen so much death in one place before, and all of this sudden exposure was making him nauseous. How horrid...

Cain turned away and left is room as quickly as possible, leaving the message to play because he couldn't bear looking at it any longer. He let out a particularly loud sob as he rounded the corner, and nearly bumped into his brother, who had looked up to see who had made the sound.

"Cain? What is it?"

"Abel... Did... Did you see the message they sent us...?" he sniffed, trying to clear his nose a little. He heard his twin's deep, sad sigh, and Abel nodded,

"Yes..."

"They need help, and we can't do anything... Can we?" Abel shook his head,

"Not all the way out here, no..." he was surprisingly level-headed considering the true gravitation of this situation, but he'd always been like that. He wasn't affected with emotions nearly as much as Cain. "I think this is something we just have to let go. It was bound to happen sooner or later, because..." he took a deep breath, as if he had wanted to say this for a long time, but hadn't found the courage to do so until now, "Because human beings are naturally violent. They'll do anything to kill each other, or to see others killed. In a crisis... They're more likely to revert to primitive acts..."

"But I thought you said we were human too? Don't you believe that?" Cain looked up at him, removing his glasses and wiping his eyes. Again, Abel sighed, slow and deep, closing his eyes as his breath escaped him.

"Cain, I... I really don't know anymore. I don't think we ever really were completely human, and we never will be. Just like I can hardly believe that there's a divine being watching me right now, all the way out here, who I'll be damned by if I don't continue to do as I'm told... _Lilith _is religious... _Lilith _believes us to be human... It's all her... All her..." his voice faded and he turned his back to Cain.

"But... I thought you loved her?"

"I... God, I do... So much, but... Sometimes I don't feel like we were meant to be. Sure, I have feelings for her, but would she even pass me a glance if she knew that she hasn't completely changed my beliefs? I know my purpose in life was to kill, to be a weapon of war, and I know I can choose _not _to kill, but I feel compelled to do just that," he chuckled softly, but there was no happiness in it, "Love is ridiculous... Cain, do you think it's making me stupid?" he turned back around, "Because I'm seeing less and less of what I don't like in them, the humans, every day. I think it's blinding me, but it would kill me to lose her." Cain remained silent. He was happy for Abel, that was true, but what Abel said about his own nature was also true. Humans were evil and corrupt, Cain knew it, but didn't base all of his opinion on simply that. Abel did. He'd never forgive them, or, he'd try not to, but with Lilith around... Who knew?

He'd been seeing less and less of his brother alone lately, as he was always with her, and yes, he was jealous, but he kept it bitten back. Lilith didn't even feel the same for Abel, and Cain's twin was always trying to impress her. He never told Abel how he felt out of fear of hurting him, and now, even though their conversation was completely serious, he was happy to be alone with Abel for the first time in a while.

Abel sighed at Cain's lack of response, and glanced out the window. The night sky was clouded red, the wind howling outside and kicking up rusty dust, and Abel shivered.

"What a horrible place to live... It's so barren..." Facing the east, they could see the pair of roughly shaped moons—Phobos and Deimos—close to the horizon. The day could be quite beautiful, as could the night, whenever they were lucky enough to not have one of these dreadful sandstorms. Regardless, because of the red surface of Mars, plus the floating dust, the sky was a rather lovely rose during the day, but sadly, no one could ever go outside. After all, the atmosphere of this planet was unbreathable. The carbon dioxide content was far too high to be safe.

Cain touched Abel's arm, "Come on, let's get something to eat. I'm sure Seth and Lilith are waiting for us." With a nod, the brothers left their outside view, and headed down the bright white hallway, toward their dining room.

"Seth, come have some dinner," the brothers heard Lilith prod gently, and the girl bounced away from the window to take her seat beside Cain's chair as he lowered himself into it. Lilith smiled at the girl, and noticed Abel staring at his brother with a frown on his face. Cain glanced up at him, his brows knit in confusion, and he saw Lilith's hand come to rest on Abel's own, jerking him back to reality. She gave him one of her looks, the one that told him not to worry himself so much, but he couldn't help it. Cain felt a slight pang of guilt at the knowledge that his previous silence must have unsettled his brother. Nonetheless, Abel smiled, tucking a loose strand of his shoulder length silver hair behind his ear.

Cain finished first, and got up from the table to go to his room, where he was currently conducting some sort of experiment that he would not yet tell them about. Abel was just glad he was doing something constructive with his time, and not worrying about Abel like he had seemed to be doing a lot lately. Cain locked the door, heading to the desk in the corner of his room, which was littered with dozens of papers, all containing technical sketches and measurements. What he wouldn't tell them was that he had planned to help the remaining Terran when they were returned to Earth, should they do it in his life time. He planned to bring them back to their previous state of wealth and prosperity, using the technology he had learned about a few years ago; he loved to read, and had found that inventing new ways to bring the Terran back to order was quite easy for him to do. That, and he knew it would please his siblings.

He was currently working on his latest invention, one that would completely eliminate the need for nuclear power ever again. By utilizing more natural resources, such energy could be easily obtained. The sun, for example, was many times more powerful in the dark depths of space than it was on Earth, so to use the radiation it emitted by satellite would remove the danger a nuclear plant on Earth brought on. After seeing what such power was capable of, nuclear power was the last thing the Terran should return to; it created too much hazardous waste that they couldn't do anything with.

All was going well for him as he worked, examining his blueprints and sketches over and over, and he had even experimented with certain chemicals, inputting his information into his computer. He was so very busy, he hadn't noticed the blinking red light attached to the ledge beneath his desk by a piece of pallid-colored putty. He continued to work as normal, shuffling between his computer, his desk, and the sketches on the wall.

"Hmmm…" Cain puzzled over his sketches, "Maybe if I..." he flopped down in a swivel chair, crossing his legs and folding his arms, his brow wrinkled. He sighed, and his eyes traveled across the wall. A blond brow raised. "Huh?" he rose, and knelt to examine the blinking red light below his desk. He gasped, and made a mad dash for his bedroom door. He panicked when the door would not open, jiggling the handle. Of all times it could get stuck! He swore, and let out a cry of distress, frantically tapping the call button on his golden ear cuff, and ran to the other side of the room to the emergency exit. "OPEN, DAMN IT!" he howled, and turned to look frantically for another way out.

"Yes, Cain, what is it?" Abel's voice sounded in his ear.

"ABEL, HEL—!" The explosion that rocked his room slammed him against the wall with bone-crushing force, and he fell limp and dizzy when the back of his skull struck the steel wall behind him, blood now smeared across the once pristine white paint. He'd heard shattering bone in more than one place, and the pain made his eyes water and the world spin, but he couldn't move or cry out. His ears were ringing, his vision foggy and would not clear even as he blinked. Concussed and shell-shocked, body and skull aching, he heard and saw nothing until Abel burst into the room and ran to him, tapping his cheek with an open hand to try and bring him to attention. He was shouting something, and Cain gazed at him blankly, seeing his distraught expression, his frantic yells strangely muffled as if they were under water. It also occurred to Cain that he must still be standing, as Abel wasn't kneeling or squatting, but how could that be? Cain couldn't even feel his feet, and he was so dizzy, standing was surely out of the question.

"God, God NO!" Abel screamed, and clapped his hand to his ear, tapping his ear piece, "Seth! Lilith! Please, get down here!" He glanced back at Cain, "Cain!" he cupped his chin in both hands, "Cain, can you hear me?!"

"Yes..." came his soft response, "Abel... Under my desk... There was a bomb..."

"A bomb?"

"Yes... Ah..." he grimaced.

"Pl-please, Cain, d-d-don't move. Just stay... Oh... Ohhh, God..." he was shaking, and he bit his lip, his eyes welling up.

"Abel... I'll be all right... Probably... Just a concussion... A few breaks..." He tried to chuckle, but moaned again when he was wracked with pain.

"N-no... No, Cain... You won't... You won't... D-damn it..." he shook his head, and let out a soft sob.

"What...? What do you mean...? It's just... A little head bang..." he tried to move, just a little, to show him it was going to be all right, and cried out as a horrible pain wrenched at him again, more intense than before. "Ah! Ahhh, what's going on?! God, oh..." he groaned, gasping, shuddering as the pain struck him with hammer blows with each breath. Tears streamed down his brother's face. Abel tapped his ear piece with jittery fingers, hardly able to speak.

"Seth! L-Lilith! PLEASE! God, NOO!" he moaned through his sobs, then looked up at Cain, "C-Cain... Give me... Your hands... B-both of them..." Cain did, crying out and making Abel flinch and whine softly. Abel took his hands, clasping one tightly, and bringing the other to rest over Cain's own abdomen. In the center of his stomach, where his navel would have been, was a protruding chunk of metal that had once been his bed frame, staking him to the wall. Cain's eyes widened.

"A-Abel... Abel... A-am I... Am I going to die...?"

"No... No, you won't die... You won't... Y-you won't..." he bowed his head, and rested it against Cain's shoulder just as he heard the fleeting footsteps of two women, one grown the other a teenager. Cain glanced in their direction, his eyes the only part of him that shifted. Cold was creeping in on him, and darkness into his eyes, but he refused to close them. He wanted to sleep, but knew he shouldn't. The look on the womens' faces told him that his wound really was more horrific than he would ever know just from touching it. Lilith was a doctor... She'd know what to do...

And there was someone else with her, following closely behind. A man, one who was definitely familiar to him. He was thin and white-haired, bespectacled, and with a stooping posture; the result of leaning over countless experiments. He remembered then hospital room when he was just a teenage boy, the soup and the nice nurse... It was Dr. Putzkammer. His expression wasn't nearly as concerned as Cain thought it should be, either... In fact... He looked almost joyous. Abel glared at him.

"My, my... It looks like you've gotten yourself into somesing awful, Krusnik 01..." Abel stepped back as red-haired Lilith came to Cain, and looked him over hurriedly, examining what would surely be a gaping wound in his stomach.

"H-how... How does it look...?" his voice was growing fainter and fainter by the minute. Lilith pulled away, and looked up at him, stroking his cheek like a loving mother.

"Cain... How do your legs feel?"

"I-I can't feel them a-at all... Why?" Her eyes closed, and she nodded.

"L-Lilith... Can we save him?" Abel muttered. He was currently kneeling beside Seth, who was hugging him tightly and hiding her face in his shoulder, not wanting to see or smell the horrifying atmosphere of the room. Lilith looked at Abel, glanced back at Cain, and stroked his blond hair gently.

"I'm sorry... So sorry... Cain..." her voice broke, and she stepped away. Cain's expression became anguished, and his siblings started to sob quietly, holding onto each other for dear life.

"I... I don't want to die... I don't... No! I don't want to die yet! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" he screamed, and Seth clamped her hands over her ears to block out his despairing cries. Dr. Putzkammer sighed impatiently, and that caught Abel's attention. He gently released Seth, and rose, flinching as Cain cried out sorrowfully again.

"Doctor..." he muttered, and Putzkammer turned.

"Yes? Vat is it—Grck!" Abel grasped him forcefully around the throat and shoved him brutally against the wall.

"YOU did this, DIDN'T YOU?!"

"Abel, don't!" Lilith grabbed his arm, and Seth was there to help her, only to be pushed back and Abel's grip tightened.

"No, he's... Absolutely correct... Zhe bomb vas my idea... But..." he gasped a few times, "You vouldn't... Have agreed... Ozervise... I vant to continue... Zhe experimentation..." Abel blanched.

"All this to EXPERIMENT on us?! THERE'S NO WAY IN HELL I'LL LET YOU DO IT TO HIM!"

"Zh-zhen... He'll die..." Abel's grip lessened significantly, and he looked to his brother, who was growing limp and drowsy, the hand that was touching the steel projection now languid and not holding fast. "But... If you allow me... To inject him vis zhe nanomachines again... a-and complete... zhe transformation... He von't."

"You are a lowlife bastard..." Abel spat, "We're human too, DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?" Putzkammer flinched, "NOT LAB EXPERIMENTS!"

"Abel, please stop. He'll help him." Seth's tiny voice sounded near his elbow. He turned, his eyes wide and teeth clenched with rage, glancing at the figure of Cain, whose eyes were drooping with exhaustion. He didn't want to lose his brother... He set the doctor down gently, reluctantly releasing him.

"_Fine,_" Abel muttered. He stepped away, but he watched Putzkammer warily, ready to throttle him if he felt the need to do so. Putzkammer gave a short nod to Seth, and she took off down the hall. Abel growled, and shot a dark glare at the older man, clearly accusing Putzkammer of corrupting his sister, but the other man ignored Abel completely, staring placidly at the door until Seth returned to them. She came with a shiny, silver syringe, the gage of the needle rather large, and the glass chamber was filled with a thick, dark substance that sloshed around sluggishly like syrup. She knelt beside Cain's limp form, and stuck the needle in his thigh with practiced ease, making Abel's expression all the more sour, and she gave the injection, handing the needle back to the doctor when she was finished.

"Very good. Now, ve must get zhe sree of you to separate laboratories, and denn... Ve shall see." He smiled widely.


	11. Resurrection

Dr. Putzkammer smiled as Cain stepped off of the platform, his cryostasis tank just emptied and Cain naked and dripping with water. As Cain wrung out his long, blond hair, Putzkammer offered him a towel, and reached to dry his shoulder, but Cain swatted his hand away with a growl and snatched the towel away.

"Don't touch me... It hurts." The cold air was making goosebumps rise on his skin, but he simply draped the towel across his shoulders, not caring he was otherwise bare. Other scientists were bustling about the lab, glancing Cain's way before returning to the lit screens of their computers in the otherwise dark room; the lights had gone off in the base of the cryostasis tank.

"Your sister has just avakened, and she is doing fine. Zhey are having some trouble vaking Abel... But it should not take long. As ve did before vhen ve created you initially, you and your brozer share the same batch of nanomachines, zo you may be able to communicate visout speaking."

"Really? Maybe I should try to wake him...?"

"Please do." Cain closed his eyes, and reached out to Abel with his mind. He touched some sort of consciousness. It was sedated, and far off, but it was definitely there. _Abel _was there. Cain crept in, the tendrils of his own mind enveloping his twin's lovingly, enjoying the familiarity of the dreams there, the thoughts and memories they both shared. It was the most soothing place in the world...

…..._Abel_...

…..._Abel, wake up_...

…..._Come on, little brother_...

Abel roused slightly, enough to feel him there.

_Cain?_

_Oh good. I was worried. You need to wake up._

_You're alive! _The rush of gratitude was overwhelming, and if they had been in the same room, Abel would have leaped on Cain in relief.

_Hm, yes I am, _Cain smiled, _Now wake up so I can greet you properly._

His mind remained wrapped in Abel's as he opened his eyes slowly, inside of the now empty cryostasis tank. He pulled his oxygen mask off and the glass lifted, receding into the ceiling.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHHH!" Cain felt it as Abel did, and Abel fell to the floor of his tank, screaming. Sensation fired across his nerves where there was none. His senses were dramatically heightened, and he could feel everything: the floor, the nanomachines crawling through his veins, the cold air, his modified cells changing with every passing second, healing and wounding and healing in the same instant, and it _hurt_. Cain gasped, withdrawing suddenly, feeling his own similar pain when he returned to his body, and he pushed the scientist in front of him out of the way so he could see the screen monitoring Abel's lab, and the people swarming around to help him.

"Oh, no... My poor Abel... he doesn't handle pain very well..." Cain touched the screen lovingly. The chatter from the scientists was deafening on Abel's sharp hearing, surely, only adding to his agony. The others crowded around Cain to watch, shocked.

Abel's eyes snapped open and he howled like a beast, bursting into blindingly bright electric blue light, lightning shooting in every direction in a violent tempest, incinerating anyone it touched on contact, the machines exploding, fragments of glass wounding and killing, showers of sparks filling the room. Live wires burned white hot, catching labcoats and sending their owners fleeing for their lives. As the storm subsided, Abel was hugging his knees, gasping, his silver hair standing on end as residual bolts of lightning arced through the air, crackling, Abel's hair rippling with static.

Still touching the screen, Cain reached out again, intending to soothe. Abel recoiled visibly on the screen at first, but gasped, and got on his hands and knees, his eyes welling with tears. He spoke aloud, a tremor in his voice.

"Cain... Please, help me... It hurts... IT HURTS! Make it stop!"

"I need to go to him..."

"You cannot... He is in London, and ve are in Berlin." Cain frowned deeply, his hand still resting tenderly on the screen,

"He needs my help... I guess there's nothing I can do right now... When can I see him again?"

"Soon enough."

"All right... Can I ask why you're doing this to us? What's this for?"

"Vell... It has come to our attention zhat many of the humans sent on zhe trip in zhe Ark vis you—and on previous expeditions—to Mars have all come down vis some sort of _sickness. _It causes sensitivity to light, a fatal allergy to silver, and a thirst for normal, untainted human blood. Much like a vampire. Vhen zhey returned home, the developed an elitist attitude and believe zhey are better zhan everyone else. Zhey view zhemselves as superior beings and think of humans as food. So, you, Abel, und your sister have been modified to combat the problem. Initally, you were created as perfect humans, and the nanomachines were developed later. You sree took to zhen so vell, I _had _to continue."

"And... What about Lilith?"

"She did not take to zhem like you. And she wants nossing to do viss zhis. She will not kill, and zhat is vat you must do."

"You want my siblings and I to kill the Methuselah?"

"You haf to. Zhe hunger vill overvelm you."

"I can do that. And I don't think it'll be a problem for Abel or Seth either... As long as Lilith doesn't interfere. I'll make sure she doesn't, because Abel has a soft spot for her."

"_Sehr gut_. Now, follow me, und I vill give you your new uniform."


	12. Turning point

"Abel do you think you could go back and check the ship? Make sure we haven't left anyone or anything behind, all right?" the red-haired woman inquired sweetly, stroking Abel's cheek as she smiled fondly at him. Cain's younger twin was all too eager to respond, his eyes wide and bright with a happy excitement only she could bring from him, and if he'd had a tail, he'd surely be sitting and thumping it against the floor excitedly. Cain scoffed, and kicked a loose bolt across the hall, straightening the badges on his white, red-trimmed UN military uniform that marked him as a colonel, and strode toward the exit and out the brightly-lit, airtight hatch, into the dim sunset.

Once his vision adjusted to the dark, he saw all of the Methuselah—as Seth had come to call them, as opposed to vampires, saying it suggested they were much more than simple-minded, bloodthirsty beasts—looking around and gawking like idiots at their surroundings. As Cain's gaze followed theirs, he realized why, and smirked just slightly.

The plants were green, yes, but some of them definitely looked sick for some reason; flowers with grotesque mutations bent over the rain-starved ground like a tired old woman. There were trees that looked as if they had been utterly incinerated, some only yielding burnt stumps while others' branches remained in a gnarled, leafless shadow of their former glory, whole forests flattened and laying in eerie rows along the ground. Bare riverbeds and lakes suggested the water had been boiled to steam in only the flash of an instant, as the ground hadn't even had time to crack, and the rocks that lined the edges were scorched by something other than conventional fire. The most unsettling thing was the lack of other forms of life, like birds singing or buzzing insects enjoying the fading heat of the warm afternoon. No livestock grazing or deer... Nothing.

Beyond that was a shabby little village—which looked as if it could have been quite the grand city at one point in its life, or at least a bustling countryside town—whose buildings were crumbling and threatening to fall, and yet some silly people who chose to live here staggered out to meet the group, looking even more sickly than the plants, most of the children and some of the adults bearing an unsightly crimson rash on their bare limbs. All of the people looked so relieved to see them, it was as if they hadn't seen another person for a long, long time.

Cain squatted, and took a fistful of dirt, bringing it to his nose to sniff, but smelled nothing, and yet he felt the most peculiar prickling sensation now and then, which was very much the same he felt when his body healed minor injuries like cuts and scrapes at its unnatural speed. For a moment, he couldn't imagine what might have caused it, but then he remembered just flashes of one of the videos he'd been sent while they still resided on Mars, and a slight smirk painted his features. Nuclear holocaust. This was all that was left, and most of the radiation had gone, but the prickling he felt was the tiny bit of damage inflicted by the gamma particles as they passed through his cells. The rashes were caused by the irradiated plants the children played in, and the water had dried up in a split second with intense heat after the initial blast, the trees knocked over and set aflame with the shockwave. These people would most definitely die very, very soon.

He joined Seth, who was also standing outside and gawking at the scenery with the others, and saw Abel step out of the ship, carrying his luggage on his shoulders, his eyes squinting when he stepped outside, and he stood completely still while his eyes adjusted, nearly dropping his luggage when he saw his surroundings. Lilith followed closely behind him, and uttered a wordless cry when she saw them: the humans standing pitifully just outside their homes.

She ran to them, asking if they were all right in an urgent tone, and Cain just stood and stared, his expression neutral, and he watched his brother run after her while Seth moved between the Methuselah, conversing with and comforting them. It was times like this that he felt so detached from the world around him, like he didn't quite belong here, not since he'd accepted the nanomachines into his body. He felt like he should be occupying another sphere entirely... One more suited to his "godly" nature, with followers and worshipers, not friends.

"Cain?" he jerked out of his daydreams, to find Seth resting her hand on his forearm, "Are you all right?" He smiled down at her,

"Of course. Just thinking, that's all."

"We're going to be staying here and helping the humans out... That's what Lilith said..."

"Why? They're doomed. Or, at least these ones are. You can feel it, can't you? There's not much radiation left, but it's enough to make a difference. They've been exposed for so long... I doubt they'll last until the end of the month, no matter how well Lilith was trained. "

"I know, but... if Lilith is happy, then so is Abel, and you want him to be happy, don't you?"

"Of course I do, but I don't want him to be corrupted..."

"Corrupted...?" she chuckled softly, "Well, I think that's a little harsh."

"Hmm..." Cain chuckled too, "Maybe... Maybe you're right." He folded his arms across his chest, yawning. Now what? "Do we have to sleep in the same houses as these people?"

"I... Don't know... Here she comes." Lilith glided toward them, her sky blue colored sari rippling around her feet.

"Cain, Seth, can you help me with a few things?"

"Where are we all going to stay, Lilith?" Cain had to hold back a demanding tone. Something told him he didn't want to know what she was going to tell him.

"Well, I wanted them to stay on the ship with us, but there's only one problem. The ship won't hold us all. So, the four of us and a group of Methuselah will stay in their homes while they rest in the infirmary and in proper beds on the ship."

"But... Why?" His voice was abnormally strained as he tried to keep his face as innocent and questioning as was possible, despite the absolute outrage that boiled under his skin. The old Cain wouldn't scream or shout at her for her silly requests, even if he felt the insatiable desire to do so.

"Because I feel it would be the right thing to do."

"Y-you... Feel it would be...?" he was clenching his jaw now, "But... Lilith... Why should we do that? By the look of things, I don't think they're going to last very long. Statistically, they'll be—"

"Cain, please," she held up her hand, "You and I both know that humans are unnaturally immune to medical statistics. I want to do whatever I can to help them, and I want you to help me as well. Abel has already agreed to it. Seth, what about you?" Cain raised a brow as he looked at his sister through the corner of his eye, her bright green eyes unsure.

"All right, I'll see what we can do..." she sighed, resigned. Cain took a long, deep breath, and exhaled forcefully. How could his siblings allow themselves to be suckered into her tasks so easily?!

"Please, Cain?" She asked him so sweetly, so kindly, he knew his old self would have agreed to do whatever she said, but this time, the only one who was really convincing him he should help her for now was Abel. Abel adored her so much... Cain knew that when the time came, he'd realize what a corrupt woman she was. He smiled at the thought.

"All right. I'll help you. We'll stay in the humans' houses, and they can stay in here, where you can keep an eye on them." She seemed content with that. Now that he thought of it, he might be able to use this as leverage... He just had to get Abel to feel sorry for him, and drag him away from the 'dark side' that Lilith had created. So for now he bowed his head and did as he was told, just as if he was the little boy she seemed to want him to be.

It turned out to be hard work convincing the people they would be safer on the ship than they were out there, explaining to them that Lilith could treat their injuries if they would only get on the ship, and they would have comfortable beds, plenty of food, and warmth and shelter from the elements. Finally, like sheep after an untrustworthy shepherd—as Cain was sure they would soon view him—they all clomped up the gangplank onto the massive spaceship, the Ark.

Then it was off to assign them all cabins, or places in the infirmary when they really needed it, like those with obvious radiation sickness that caused them to vomit and stumble around like an alcoholic. Cain ushered them through the halls, and shut the doors after them once they were settled, all the while wearing his bright smile, though this one was joyful with the knowledge of what he planned on doing to mess around with his dear brother soon. He'd need a little help from his good friend Putzkammer if he was going to get it done properly, and he only hoped the scientist would agree to do it without asking too many questions.

The doctor was still staying within the Ark, but he wouldn't be helping Lilith, as he only specialized in the four Krusnik, and was unwilling to help out the humans. For that, Cain felt a bit of respect for the man, along with joy because it was he that had given Cain these extraordinary powers. He couldn't hate the man for their torture like Abel did, now that he thought about it, because it was a necessary evil. Even so, he had plans...

Cain trotted through the long, gleaming white hall, hands clasped behind his back, and he was whistling merrily, which no one could hear over their continuous talking as they unpacked and settled themselves in their new rooms. He squeezed between them, turning down an empty hall, still whistling, finding the doctor's office at the very end on his right hand side. The heavy, metal doors were pushed aside to reveal Lilith inside, speaking with the doctor, immediately silenced once Cain walked through the door. Cain's smile didn't waver once.

"If it's not too much trouble, I was wondering if I could speak to the doctor alone. May I?" Lilith nodded hesitantly, clearly not approving of the happy grin on Cain's face,

"I suppose I should see how my children are settling in..." Cain's expression turned sour at this, but he hid it quickly as she turned, "I will return to speak with you later, Daniel," she smiled, and he nodded, Lilith making her exit with a swish of her long, red hair and deep blue sari, the door making a resounding click as it closed.

"Vat can I help you vis?" The doctor picked up a pile of paperwork on his desk and straightened it out, placing it neatly inside a yellow folder.

"Well... Since my recent... Transformation... There are a few questions that I would like answered."

"Und... Zey are?"

"I'm curious..." he had to tread carefully here, fearing he might be caught, and then he'd never get this done, "As a Krusnik, can I heal infinitely?"

"In seory, ja, as you did in every test ve conducted, and it seems zhe nanomachines have zhe potential to do so. It would be impossible to test you infinitely, of course."

"Then, I'm also wondering... Is my pain tolerance threshold higher? I mean, if my body can handle and heal great amounts of injury, can I bear the pain of being on the brink of death and coming back again?" Putzkammer looked utterly shocked.

"I vould not know... It vas you on zhe table, not myself. Vhen you vere a child, zhat is vat ve did... Do you not remember?"

"No, I lost a lot of my memories when I was turned Krusnik. They changed me completely, remember?"

"Oh, _ja _I do...Vould... Vould you like me to remind you?" Cain grinned wider,

"Oh yes, I really would."

"Right now?"

"Preferably, because I know Lilith isn't going to like it, and neither is Abel and Seth." The doctor looked utterly excited, and licked his lips, suddenly happy as can be. He started muttering very quickly under his breath in German, and Cain didn't catch a word of it until he was directly spoken to,

"We cannot stay here in my office. There is a laboratory on the third floor that we can use. Come, if you wish to do this before someone notices... Come, come!" he gestured for Cain to follow, and the blond did so without question. As the entered Putzkammer's lab, he even laid on the table without protest, and allowed the man to strap him down, just in case, though they were both aware that Cain could break his way out if he really wanted to.

"What are you going to do to me?"Cain decided to speak back to the doctor in German, not wanting to break the man's concentration. Dr. Putzkammer could speak faster in German.

"You said you wanted to go to the edge of death and back... So... Electrocution...? It is extraordinarily painful and damaging. I feel it would be sufficient."

"Good. So do I. Good thing you have me strapped down, Doctor. I have a feeling we're both going to need it."

"Indeed. I do not know how the nanomachines will react to such treatment, so for my safety and yours..." He opened Cain's robe and attached electrodes to his chest, then stuck two more to his stomach and two to his temples. Cain was still smiling brightly, though he knew this would be painful; it was going to be worth it in the end. The doctor seemed to be enjoying it, as he was muttering excitedly as he hooked the electrodes to a machine that emitted high-amp electricity, then returned to his computer on the other side of the plexiglass wall.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes, of course," Cain smiled. Dr. Putzkammer nodded once, and flipped the switch on the control board in front of him.

The effect was immediate. Cain's muscles seized and his back bowed off the bench, straining his straps, and he screamed long and loud. Pain fired across his nerves, his skin grew hot, started to burn, and his clothing caught fire. The heat was unbelievable, and the pain was amplified as the nanomachines protested, shuddering to life inside him. Cain shuddered and flailed and screamed, his flesh charring black, but the doctor continued, dark fascination on his face as he watched, until Cain's screaming subsided, his heart stopping when the machine clicked off. The doctor took notes, and waited, watching the charred corpse of Cain Nightroad intently.

After several long minutes, his skin began to lighten, the corpse seeming to inflate as organs regenerated, skin and muscle bulking up again. Long, blond hair sprouted from his scalp again, eyeballs regenerating in empty sockets, covered by his lids again. Cain took a deep, shuddering breath, shaking his head and blinking to clear his vision. He looked around the room,

"Wow... It worked."

"Of course it did. I must admit, however, that I am surprised you regenerate so quickly and completely. Shall we go again?"

"Definitely."

Two more times Cain was electrocuted, burnt alive, and resurrected again, and just as they were about to begin the third session, the door banged open, and a frightened-looking Abel burst through. Dr. Putzkammer gasped, and in the other room, Cain burst into hysterical tears.

"ABEL! I'm so glad to see you! He lured me here and started torturing me! He'll never leave us alone! He can't keep his hands off us! We'll always just be experiments to him!" Abel's gaze went glowing blood red as it turned to the doctor.

"V-Vat are you talking about...?" he was back to speaking his thickly-accented English again, "H-he vanted zhis! I did nossing of zhe sort!"

"Liar!" Abel snapped, seizing him roughly by the throat and slamming him against the wall, snarling, "How DARE you do this to him!" his grip tightened, and the doctor scratched at his hands, gasping for air.

"N-Nein! I—" Abel tossed him to the floor, where he lie, coughing, for several minutes, "I am... Done... Vis zhat part ov my life... I vould not..."

"SHUT UP!" Abel kicked him aside, and leapt on him, sinking his teeth in the man's arm. He screamed, which only angered Abel further, and he clapped his hand over Putzkammer's mouth, slamming his head against the floor. Blood spattered the tile, and Abel lost control when the doctor's Methuselah blood slipped down his throat and ignited the nanomachines to a bloodlust-driven frenzy. He released a loud howl. It had been a long time since he had drank any raw blood. Cain smirked as Abel slammed Putzkammer's head against the floor again and again, his claw-like nails embedded deeply in the doctor's skin, and Cain heard the doctor's skull crack, his screams silenced finally and his head lolling sadly as Abel snarled and bit into the side of his neck, swallowing huge mouthfuls of blood, rivulets of the warm, viscous, crimson fluid tricking down his chin and staining his white uniform, his eyes glowing menacingly.

He growled, trembling as he released the drained corpse, licking his lips, gasping for breath and shaking his head as the bloodlust subsided, falling to his hands and knees. His vision cleared, his eyes returned to their usual blue hue again, and he got to his feet again. His eyes found the corpse of the doctor, a halo of splattered blood and shards of skull spread out around his head.

"No... No, no, no... I-I... NO! Damn it, not again!" He threw the door open to Cain's room and ripped the straps free, clutching his twin tightly. "Damn... Cain, are you all right?"

"Yes... Thank you, little brother..." their consciousness brushed, Cain's soothing his brother, "I'm much better..."

"I sh-shouldn't have lost control... I killed him..."

"It's okay, Abel... He wouldn't have stopped treating us like lab animals. Not ever... I don't think he deserved any less..." he spoke softly, careful to maintain the frightened, pained tone in his voice, clinging to his twin just as tightly as Abel clung to him.

"I know... You're right..." Abel muttered. Cain nodded. Abel was just as easy to manipulate as he expected him to be. Now... For the next part of his plan...


	13. Murder

Screams pierced the sensitive ears of the Krusnik, but he did not flinch. He smiled his dazzling smile, blue eyes flashing, as he watched the crowd of Methuselah gather around the pair: an old man crouched over a small Methuselah girl, holding a wicked-looking knife dripping with her blood. He'd decapitated the poor child. Even a Methuselah couldn't survive such a wound. The man was breathing heavily, and there were shocked shouts from, the crowd that was gathering.

"Sh-she attacked my wife! Attacked her and tried to suck her blood! You're all vampires, aren't you?! Blood-sucking monsters come to drag us all to hell!" Cain chuckled softly. So, silver nitrate definitely worked on Methuselah. Excited the bacteria in their blood and gave them insatiable thirst that they couldn't control. _Wonderful. _Lucky for him, he'd been so smooth when he stuck her with the needle that she'd only thought it had been an insect bite.

"We are NOT monsters! We're human, just like you! We're only a little different, that's all! This girl meant nothing by that attack! She couldn't help herself! For God's sake, she's only a child!" a man shouted back. Abel dashed past Cain, his long, silver hair flying, and parted the crowd to get a better look. Seth and Lilith followed soon afterward.

"What's going on?" Lilith looked increasingly worried as she saw the expressions on the human and Methuselahs' faces as they stared each other down.

"He's killed a little girl, Lady!" a horrified woman gripped the front of her blue sari, "A little Methuselah girl! They hate us!"

"Don't be silly..." she laughed girlishly, but nervously, afraid of what she might see if she made her way to the middle of the crowd herself. A loud, horrified scream from Abel signified he'd reached the center of the group, and seen the girl. Cain almost laughed.

"No... No... NO, NO, NO! HOW COULD YOU!?" Abel bellowed, "SHE WAS ONLY A CHILD! She... She... YOU'RE THE MONSTER, NOT HER! YOU COULD NEVER UNDERSTAND THE PAIN SHE HAD TO GO THROUGH BECAUSE OF HER CONDITION!"

"Abel, that's enough!" Lilith pushed her way to him, and gasped when she saw the child. "It was a defensive move, that was all. You'd react the same way if you were attacked, right?" She scolded him as if he were a child. Cain growled, but didn't dare imagine the kicked puppy look on Abel's face, or else he'd blow his cover when he slaughtered the red-haired abomination on the spot.

"L-Lilith... B-but..."

"Lady Sahl is right!" the old man screamed, "But who's to say you won't all attack us and kill us in our sleep?!"

"We're not uncivilized beasts, old man, so shut your trap!"

"That girl was the sweetest child I knew! She must've been tainted by one of you!" a woman snarled.

"Us? We'd never make such a low blow as you dealt to us today! It's all a disguise, isn't it? You want to eat us, harvest us like livestock! That's the only reason you people came down here! You should have stayed on your own planet, if Mars is really where you come from!"

"Please, please... That's enough," Lilith soothed, "I came to help you."

"Maybe YOU did, but what about THEM?" There was an outraged burst of shouting, which Lilith and Seth were trying to calm, and Abel stumbled out of the crowd, his bottom lip quivering and his expression so heart-breakingly sad that Cain would have lost it himself if he was able. His brother was clutching a small stuffed rabbit, covered in the girl's spilled blood. He fell to his knees before Cain, and started to sob, clutching the rabbit to his chest. His words were broken up with sorrow.

"Cain... It was... That little girl we met a long time ago... Evelyn..." Cain knelt to give Abel a hug, "Why, Cain? Why?" Abel sobbed on his twin's shoulder.

"You know this is how it was going to eventually be, right? Humans and vampires can't live in the same place together," he whispered, "And when they find out what you and I are, they'll do to us what they did all those years ago... We're a scientific marvel, you know... They'll want to know how we work, and they'll cut us up and make us lab experiments again... And once they find out we heal after we're cut up, they'll do it again and again, just to see us do it."

"N-no, th-they w-wouldn't... T-tell me they w-wouldn't... C-can't... Not an-nother Putzkammer..."

"Oh, they will," Cain crooned, stroking Abel's hair, and felt his brother shudder. His soothing presence inside Abel's mind cemented the silver-haired twin's reassurance that disliking the humans was what they were supposed to do. He was careful to keep his influence in check; there was no need to make Abel suspicious that he was up to no good, and if Abel peered into Cain's mind, he would surely see the malicious intent there.

"...w-won't let it happen..."

"Neither will I. You know what that means, don't you? Don't you?" Cain smiled again, "Humans are corrupt, aren't they?"

"Yes... horrible..."

"And it doesn't look like Lilith really cares what happens to the four of us, does she?"

"But Lilith was always so kind... Cain..."

"When we were defenseless children, she was."

"S-so, what are we now?"

"Monsters. Lab experiments. Abel, what if the humans start killing off all the Methuselah? Do you think Lilith is going to take our side?"

"N-no... Not if we start killing the humans in return... But I don't want to hurt Lilith... She's a kind woman... She really is... And I love her..." Cain heaved a deep sigh,

"Abel... Really, this isn't healthy, you know? She's practically our mother."

"But she's not related to us. Doesn't matter. I love her."

"All right, then, do this for her. She needs to understand that she's one of us, not one of them, and once the humans get the chance... They'll kill her. She's not Krusnik enough to survive if they attack her, but just enough that they'll hate her. Understand?"

"I-I suppose... You're right."

"Then lets leave this place. You, me, and Seth. Let's get as far away from here as we can, and take all the Methuselah with us... We'll always be scorned by the humans, so maybe we should work on teaching them why they should fear us? We're Krusnik, practically gods..."

"Yes... You're right... Tonight, we'll tell them, all right? And Seth too. She needs to come with us."

That night, Cain snuck into his sister's room in one of the rickety old houses of the town, and told her of their plan. She agreed instantly, not liking how the humans were treating her Methuselah with such a suspicious attitude, whispering insults under their breath about them being "bloodsuckers."

The three went house to house, gathering up their people in the dead of night, getting their belongings and creeping from the houses. They filed out, in a long line, after the trio of Krusnik, hundreds of Methuselah led by three white-clad individuals. Seth gasped when a human man burst from one of the supposedly abandoned houses, carrying a torch.

"YOU! MONSTER! We can't let you leave! We can't allow the bloodsuckers to live!" he was joined by three dozen others, all carrying knives. The group of Methuselah took a step back, parents shielding children, and Seth took a step forward,

"We're leaving! You can stay here and leave us alone, but if you get in our way, we won't have any choice but to kill you! I'm warning you!"Cain stood beside her with his arms folded behind his back, smiling brightly, nodding his agreement.

"Keep in mind, we're much stronger than you," he said politely. The man carrying a torch whipped out a long knife, reflecting the red-orange light of his torch, insanity on his dark-skinned face, his breathing heavy and sweat gleaming on his brow.

"DIE, MONSTER!" he lunged at her, and Seth prepared herself to intercept his blade, but a Methuselah woman uttered a cry and with 'haste mode' she stepped in the way, the blade making a long, diagonal gash from her shoulder to her hip, cleaving open her abdominal cavity. Seth was splattered with her blood across her face and bright white uniform, and stood in shock as the woman collapsed, gasping, on her back, desperately trying to hold her organs in place, but she knew already this wound would not heal; the blade was coated in pure silver, and already the bacteria in her blood were eating her alive.

"No! Sanem!" she dove after her fallen companion, "Why? I would have been fine... Why did you do this...?"

"Lady Seth... Please... Drink my blood... Destroy them..." she swiped some of her blood across Seth's cheek, and it soaked into her skin, her eyes lighting with a brilliant red gleam, and she nodded once, ending the suffering woman's life by tearing her heart free of her body and crushing it. She drank deeply of the woman's corpse,

"Cain... Abel... You do the same. These people aren't going to let us go without a fight." The twins complied, Abel reluctantly and Cain eagerly, sharing the remainder of her blood between them. The effect was instantaneous, and Abel was the first to retaliate, effortlessly slaying five of the group with very little effort. Cain laughed, and dove into the fray, and soon, the Methuselah joined, driven mad by the scent of human blood, and devoured the humans as they saw fit, leaving a bloody carnage behind them as they followed the three Krusnik into the wilderness.


End file.
